Cole-den Balls: Ashley may be no saint, but he has never been bombed out by a manager

The left-back may sometimes cut an unpopular figure, but when it comes to the football he has never let anyone down

While Beckham was courting his latest PR coup, Cole's performances have continued to be unerring in their quality (Photo: Laurence Griffiths)

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At the age of 28, David Beckham was bombed out of his beloved Manchester United by Sir Alex Ferguson, leaving Old Trafford with a flying boot to the head and his tail between his legs.

Three years later, Steve McClaren took over as England boss and ­announced that Beckham was finished as an international footballer.

When Beckham turned on the charm as an ambassador for the FA’s 2018 World Cup bid, the bigwigs at the shindigs enjoyed basking in the glow of Goldenballs. Then they handed England the sum total of two votes, one cast by the FA’s own man.

And when Beckham craved a ­glorious swansong in the Great Britain team at the London Olympics, coach Stuart Pearce refused to pick him, despite intense pressure from Games ­organisers and government ministers.

Carlo Ancelotti wouldn’t have a bad word said about him, even when Cole shot a work experience kid with an air rifle.

Roy Hodgson never considered ­dropping him when he called the FA a bunch of tw*ts on Twitter. Because Cole, not Beckham or even Wayne Rooney, is England’s one undoubted world-class footballer of the 21st century. Yet when he wins his 100th cap against Brazil on Wednesday, there will be no fanfare. No ceremonial captain-for-the-night honour. And not a lot of love from the Wembley crowd either.

The FA will twist Cole’s arm to give a press conference but as he hates us all, we’ll be lucky if we’re spoonfed a few anodyne quotes from their in-house media department.

Cole knows he doesn’t need good PR because those football men will always recognise that he is a damned good footballer. Hodgson admits Cole has a fight on his hands against Leighton Baines in the build-up to next year’s World Cup – should England qualify – but as the Everton left-back is a Footballer of the Year front-runner it would be rude for the England boss not to talk him up.

Still, at 32, Cole remains the most likely candidate to surpass Beckham’s record of 115 caps for an outfield player – a total boosted by a ­farewell tour of substitute appearances under Fabio Capello, after McClaren panicked and recalled him a year into his reign.

Yet Beckham and Cole, two Cockney boys, both spotted by major clubs at an early age, both decorated with medals, who both married girl-band ­songstresses and dominated front pages as well as back, could not be further apart in the popularity stakes.

Beckham may have been a fine ­footballer and is almost certainly a lovely bloke. But first and foremost, he is the patron saint of the celebrity age.

When he turned up to train with Arsenal, even millionaire Gunners players were snapped alongside him in awestruck poses, as if Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa of Calcutta had dropped by to dribble around cones.

Cole, by contrast, is Dick Dastardly in a No.3 shirt, Lucifer on the overlap. And it’s been that way since his divorce from

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So lacking is he in image-consciousness that he revealed he almost swerved off the road with rage on hearing Arsenal would pay him only £55,000 per week.

Meanwhile, Beckham, who forged a worldwide brand with his wife Victoria, is donating his entire £3.4million PSG wages to a children’s charity.

We’ve been waiting years for the Beckham knighthood. Let’s just skip that and hand him a sainthood now.

It’s just possible, of course, that Cole does a lot of work for charity but ­genuinely doesn’t like to talk about it­.

Because while it is assumed that, deep down, every man wants to be liked, Cole seems an exception to the rule.

Perhaps, as we bemoan the ­dominance of style over substance in this reality TV age, we should show a little ­grudging admiration for the man.

A man who has won the European Cup, Premier League titles with two clubs, a record seven FA Cups and who is likely to become the first Englishman to play at four World Cups.

But then again, it’s not really about the football, as Beckham discovered several years ago.

AFC throw away the moral high ground

It's little wonder that many young footballers act as if they are above the law when, in fact, they actually are.

Cardiff’s Kevin Sainte-Luce escaped jail despite punching a girl unconscious in a nightclub because, as ‘judge’ Bodfan Jenkins told him: “Your promising career could be compromised by prison time, so I want to avoid taking such action.”

Refreshingly, Cardiff terminated the French midfielder’s contract anyway. As we trust they would have done had Sainte-Luce, 19, (inset) been worth several million on the open market.

Unfortunately, fans’ club AFC Wimbledon have snapped the player up. And lost a whole heap of goodwill.

Sam Old rubbish

You cannot blame Brendan Rodgers for resting a few established stars from the trip to Oldham when Liverpool’s owners have so little regard for cup competitions that they sacked Kenny Dalglish despite him winning the Carling Cup and reaching the FA Cup Final last season.

And neither can you blame TV executives for chasing viewing figures and screening every Manchester United Cup match live, rather than opting for potential upsets, when Oldham still axed manager Paul Dickov despite him masterminding their fairytale win over Liverpool.

The forbidden Forest

So Alex McLeish is on shaky ground as Nottingham Forest’s new Kuwaiti owners face the prospect of parting company with a third manager in seven months.

As well as previous bosses Steve Cotterill and Sean O’Driscoll, the Al-Hasawi family have also axed chief executive Mark Arthur, recruitment chief Keith Burt and club ambassador Frank Clark in a sacking frenzy.

Forest’s most successful spell came when a certain Brian Howard Clough managed them for 18 years. Luckily, the Al-Hasawi family weren’t around in the ’70s because they probably wouldn’t have given that bloke much time to settle either.